iEmu aims to let you run iOS on Android or PC hardware

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Ever wish you could run iOS on your Android phone or tabelt? You may be able to soon, if the iEmu project is successful.

Chris Wade, the developer behind iEmu, is working on QEMU-powered virtualization that will allow other devices (including Android phones and tablets, Windows and Linux computers, and even other iOS devices) to emulate Apple’s hardware and boot iOS. While initial support for the Samsung A4 chip has been achieved, and the iOS bootloader and kernel are coming along, there’s still a long, long way to go. The rest of the iPhone and/or iPad hardware (like the touch input controller, audio system, GPU, and USB controller) needs to be emulated now.

Actually dual-booting Android on the iPhone has been possible for quite a while — thanks to developments like iPhoDroid. That was possible, of course, because the Android source code was available for developers to tinker with. Since iOS is closed, emulating its hardware is the only real way to get it to boot on other devices.

When hardware support has been shored up, Wade can then move on to actually booting iOS. Once they’ve scaled that mountain, it should be possible to start loading up iOS apps on the virtual device — though presumably they’d need to be sideloaded or installed via an alternative source like Cydia.

Wade envisions a number of potential users for iEmu, from anazlying iOS malware in a sandboxed environment to QA testing and debugging for iOS apps.

If you’re willing to kick in $1,000 on Kickstarter, you’ll receive a 7-inch Dell Streak tablet with the final version of iEmu installed once it’s completed (and a couple of t-shirts for good measure).